Congressman: Sweep floors for 'free' lunch

'They would have pride in the schools, they'd begin the process of rising'

Published: 12/18/2013 at 9:35 PM

(The Hill) Georgia Republican Rep. Jack Kingston, a candidate for Senate, suggested that low-income students either pay or work for their subsidized school lunches to teach them that “there is no such thing as a free lunch.”

Speaking to a meeting of the Jackson County Republican Party in Georgia on Saturday, Kingston, who is a member of the House Committee on Agriculture, which oversees the federal school lunch program, suggested a change to the program.

“One of the things I”ve talked to the Secretary of Agriculture about — why don”t you, you know, have the kids pay a dime, pay a nickel, instill in them that there is, in fact, no such thing as a free lunch. Or maybe sweep the floor in the cafeteria,” he says in a video first reported by The Huffington Post.